This is a picture of Dad, on the left, at his retirement from
Standard Oil Company, Sugar Creek, MO in 1963. Work was an
important part of Dad's life.
Dad had a wonderful sense of humor. On one visit to him a few
years ago I drove him to Walmart in his car to buy
something or other. Dad always kept a tidy little box in
his trunk with a few tools and supplies for roadside
emergencies. When we opened the trunk to put our purchase
inside, he momentarily forgot that we were in his car, not mine.
He looked at that box and said, in amazement, "I have a box
just like that in my car." Of course I said, "Well,
Daddy, that IS your box!" We stood in that parking
lot and laughed till tears were rolling down our cheeks. Many
times after that when I called to talk on the phone, he would
ask me if I still had that box in my car and then we would
both laugh about it some more.
He liked to pull a little joke on you as well. On
another visit, he kept talking about his furnace and the dangers
of carbon monoxide poisoning. I got so worried about that old
furnace that I went and bought a carbon monoxide detector.
We were sitting in his living room... me trying to figure out
how to put batteries in the thing and he was reading the
instruction booklet.....part of the time out loud. He'd read the
cautions out loud.....Do not immerse in water or damage could
occur. Do not do this or that.......I was paying very
little attention to him and then in a very serious voice he
read.....Do not put your face closer than two feet or the
detector can explode, blowing your face off!! He really got me.
For just a second I was horrified not only at the prospect of
blowing my own face off since I was messing with the thing, but
also horrified that I had bought him something that might blow
his face off! He really enjoyed the look of horror that must
have been on my face.......he laughed about his little joke the
rest of the afternoon!
I've spent many hours visiting Dad and listening to his
childhood stories in recent years. I'm thankful to have had the
opportunity to hear them and ask some questions of him. He
talked a lot about his old neighborhood and the folks he grew up
with. Some of his stories can be pieced together to give us a
pretty good idea of what his younger years were like. Dad
was actually born in Kansas City, which was a surprise to me.
His parents must have moved to the city from Odessa, maybe to
seek a better life away from the farm. His dad, Ephrim,
was a lamplighter at about the time Dad was born. They
lived on Locust Street. They returned to Odessa before Dad's
mom, Florence McDowell West, died. They lived on a farm next to
Grandma Florence's sister, Laura McDowell Tracy. Grandma raised
chickens and Dad remembers that during the illness preceding her
death, her sisters came to care for her and they cooked up every
one of her chickens. Dad never cared much for chicken
after that.
Besides farming, Grandpa Ephrim worked various jobs.
One summer they camped in a covered wagon on Brush Creek in
Kansas City while Grandfather worked at a brewery. Sometimes
he worked the wheat harvests in Kansas. He worked in
the apple orchards of Lafayette County. Being older,
Sterling was able to earn a little money hiring out to
neighboring farms. Dad was the janitor at his school which
was across the road from their farm. It was his job to
start the fire each morning. Rather than having to start a
new one daily, he would always go over to the school before bed
and put in the biggest chunk of coal he could find to keep the
fire going all night. Apparently, Dad always had the knack for
finding a way to work his way around a problem! I have a
wall clock that he bought for me a few years ago. He
didn't think the hanger was sufficient, so he fashioned a new
one. I think he put more thought and craftsmanship into
the hanger than was put into the clock itself! We probably have
all seen the contraptions he used to open his windows after the
original cranks stopped working. He loved to tinker and
find a way to fix things.
Although they were very poor and the times were difficult,
they always seemed to have some fun times. One of Dad's
favorite stories is of a spelling bee where he was given the
word "shirt" to spell. He was a shy kid and
embarrassed himself completely by blurting out s-h-i-t and then
exclaiming "No, that's not it!!" Many years
later, he met an old classmate who still remembered the
incident.
The family lived on Davis Creek. While wading in it
with his brother, Dad stepped into a hole and almost drowned.
Sterling saved his life by grabbing him by the hair on his head!
When the creek froze, they rode their bikes on it. Grandpa
Ephrim apparently dated several women. Once he took a date
to a church function of some sort. While he was inside,
Dad and another boy from the neighborhood decided to change out
his dad's buggy wheels for a joke. Before they could
finish up, they heard Grandpa coming and had to run. They
had to leave the bolts for the wheels in the buggy seat where
Grandpa would be sure to find them before driving off. Dad
said that Grandpa did a lot of yelling and cursing but never
found out who did it.
Dad's first real job was at the Post Office. It was a only a
temporary job, but he was encouraged to take the civil service
exam. The only problem was that it was a requirement that
you had to be at least 18 years old to take the exam and Dad was
under the mistaken belief that he was only 17. He never took the
exam. Later, he worked at Sears and Montgomery
Wards..........sometimes at both places at the same time!
Towards the end of World War Two, he went to work in Alaska for
part of a year. He contracted to stay for a year, but returned
home early after each letter from Mom related the illness or
injury of one of the kids or something going wrong with the
house! The last straw was a letter from Mom with the news that
she was thinking of renting out the house and moving the kids to
south Missouri! After he came home, he went to work for
Standard Oil and worked there until his retirement.
For the first few years of his retirement, Dad and Mother
lived on a little farm in Collins, MO owned by my brother,
Bud. Later, they bought a little place in town and moved
there. On the farm, Dad always had some project
going. He did a lot of fixing up and of course they had a
garden and did a lot of canning and freezing of the extras. They
really enjoyed their life on the farm. There was always
wood to be cut and hauled to the house. They used wood for
heat and I can still remember how good it smelled. They had
friends nearby and enjoyed lots of visits from family. They had
a well for drinking water and often during the summer, they
hauled water for bathing from the nearby creek. That little
creek was a treat to play in for many a grandchild!
After they moved into Collins, they still kept busy with
gardening and canning. For several years, Dad was the town
"water man". He did the meter reading, the
billing, and just whatever it took to keep the town water
service going. Mother had her Church activities and Dad
enjoyed playing cards with the other men at the Lions
Club. Most every afternoon they got a game of
"pitch" going. After Mother passed away, Dad
especially enjoyed his garden, yard, and card playing. His
garden may have shrunk in size over the years, but he always
planted one and mowed his own grass. Even at the
age of 97, he was out riding his mower.
As he became older and more frail, my sister, Marilyn,
retired and moved to Collins to help him. He was very
fortunate to have her help. It enabled him to maintain his
independence as long as possible. After Christmas in 2000, Dad
moved to Lees Summit with Marilyn. For the first few weeks
he was cared for by our sister-in-law, Bonnie. We are so
grateful to her for the wonderful care she gave him. Later
Marilyn took a duplex nearby and cared for him there.
Dad passed away on October 12, 2001. He was blessed
with a long, healthy life and the love and respect of all of his
family and friends. We were blessed to have him and will
miss him always.
~ Linda ~
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